Pop Mart just opened a dreamy dessert shop in China's most aesthetic seaside town

POP MART has opened its first permanent POP BAKERY store in Aranya, Qinhuangdao, and it is not exactly trying to be subtle. The new seaside store is built entirely around Twinkle Twinkle, the brand’s soft, dreamy “star people” IP, turning a two-story building by the beach into a pastel yellow-and-white photo trap filled with desserts, blind boxes, sea views, and giant character installations.

The store officially opened on June 19 after a trial opening on June 17. Located in Aranya’s Phase 6 cultural and creative district, the space is designed around the idea of “Twinkle Twinkle’s cloud theater,” which fits neatly with Aranya’s already artsy, slow-living beach resort image. Outside, visitors can find a giant Twinkle Twinkle sailboat-style installation on the sand, rooftop character figures, and plenty of open-air photo spots. Inside, the store leans fully into the soft fantasy world: cloud sculptures, curved starry walls, floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea, and a gentle cream-toned interior that looks practically engineered for Xiaohongshu.

The building combines two spaces in one. One side is POP BAKERY, POP MART’s first full dine-in bakery concept in China. The other side is a POP MART retail area focused on designer toys and IP products, with Twinkle Twinkle limited-edition items at the center. In other words, it is a place where fans can buy a blind box, order an IP-shaped dessert, take 70 photos, and then convince themselves the whole trip was “for the atmosphere.”

The menu is just as character-driven as the space. Twinkle Twinkle-themed items include cranberry milk pastries, star-shaped ice cream, moon pastries, special drinks, and a 298 RMB afternoon tea set with limited daily availability. There is also an Aranya-exclusive Hirono beach-castle durian cake, adding another collectible-style layer to the food lineup. The retail side includes Twinkle Twinkle blind boxes, figures, fridge magnets, and lifestyle products, including THE MONSTER co-branded small appliances such as a breakfast maker and electric kettle.

Crowds arrived immediately. During the trial opening, visitors reportedly showed up early in the morning to take photos and queue for both the dessert and toy sections. The blind box area saw long waits, while the bakery split customers into dine-in and takeaway lines. Online, people were already asking about proxy shopping, product availability, and whether certain desserts or collectibles could be bought on their behalf. For a brand built on scarcity, cute design, and emotional attachment, that is basically the dream opening scene.

The timing is also smart. The store opened during Aranya’s theater season, with Twinkle Twinkle also appearing as a trendy IP partner around the 2026 Aranya Theater Festival. Festival walls, walking routes, sightseeing trains, posters, and check-in spots were decorated with Twinkle Twinkle visuals, making the character feel less like a store mascot and more like a temporary resident of the whole seaside community.

This is where the story becomes more interesting than “POP MART opened a cute bakery.” POP MART is no longer only selling blind boxes on shelves. It is building places where its IPs can be lived, photographed, eaten, and turned into travel memories. POP BAKERY had previously appeared through mobile dessert trucks and pop-up formats, but Aranya marks a more serious step into fixed offline experience retail.

It also shows why Twinkle Twinkle is getting this level of treatment. Compared with louder, more mischievous IPs like Labubu, Twinkle Twinkle has a softer emotional appeal. It is cute, comforting, slightly dreamy, and easy to place into lifestyle settings — coffee, desserts, beaches, art festivals, weekend trips. That makes it a strong fit for Aranya, where the audience is already primed for design, culture, slow vacations, and highly aesthetic social media posts.

For POP MART, the bakery is not really about competing with normal dessert shops. It is about stretching an IP into a full consumer scene. A blind box gives you a collectible. A bakery gives you a reason to visit. A seaside installation gives you a photo. A limited afternoon tea gives you a social post. Put all of that together, and the character stops being just a toy — it becomes a destination.

Basically, POP MART looked at China’s photo economy, beach tourism, dessert culture, and collectible obsession, then wrapped them all in one tiny star-shaped character. Blind boxes were already powerful. Now they come with ocean views, cake forks, and a line outside the door.